Former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson fired from J.C. Penney

[BlueStreak]

23. Ackerman is starting to get a lot of attention

See http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-jcpenney-ackman-idUSBRE93815220130409

This article speculated that he LOST $500 M. I thought the idea of a "hedge fund" was to invest in a manner that protected against big risks. I guess "hedge funds" are actually just private funds that are able to gamble with far less transparency than, say, Vanguard's funds, on the theory that hedge fund customers are much more sophisticated. How's that working out?

Anyway, I still have a real suspicion that this story has it completely backwards -- that Ackerman planted a stooge into JCP, and then shorted the company like crazy. He made sure Johnson pocketed over $100M. JCP lost about $3B in market cap in the past 6 months. If Ackerman shorted the company -- perhaps in private accounts not seen by his hedge fund customers, there was a lot of profit to be made there.

I don't have any evidence of that. I'm not accusing anybody of anything. I'm just saying it is a real possibility that ought to be investigated. I found Johnson's dismissal to be handled is a really bizarre fashion, first retaining him at a big salary cut, then firing him (after he was able to cash in a huge deal), and then calling back the previous CEO. This feels to me like a "my work is finished here (wink, wink)" deal.